Healthy young balsa soaring to the skies.
Balsa’s fluffy ‘kapok’
Male becard with Balsa fluff for nest.
Female becard with Balsa fluff for nest.
Pale-legged Hornero (Pacific) nest in balsa tree.
How valuable is the balsa tree to nature? Should I allow the continued felling of these trees (for the wind-turbine industry) to bother me? Many people shrug and say, “Balsa is like a weed, it grows back fast.”
Yes, but —
Today I will smile and delegate the defense of balsas to National Geographic:
I will always treasure the first time I saw a kinkajou raiding a balsa of its nectar – a memory that will last ‘a lifetime.’
This kinkajou was raiding a Jackfruit tree at Poza Honda during October Big Weekend 2021.
What is the threshold? How much is too much before the flora and fauna struggle to survive?
National Geographic’s story about the Balsa research in Panama can be found here: Open all Night.
Sometimes photos become a much-needed spokesperson for the balsas.
Squirrel Cuckoo in Balsa
Golden Olive Woodpecker in Balsa
Buff-throated Saltator in Balsa
Squirrel Cuckoo in Balsa
Gray-lined Hawk in Balsa
Black Vultures, Cissus Vine and Balsa
Bananaquit in Balsa
“Lisa’s Friend the Balsa” -I always wondered, “What made that hole?
“Lisa’s Friendship Tree, the Balsa” with Cissus (Grape family) vine.
“Lisa’s Friendship Tree, the Balsa,” felled then discarded.
“Lisa’s Friendship Tree, the Balsa”
The tree became the poster child for the show in 2019, and the present exposition (Step into my World) at Museo Portoviejo.
“The Muir Tree” and the balsa fragments.
“The Friendship Tree of Life” (Acrylic)
The Groove-billed Anis (below) inspected the felled balsas in the not-so-protected protected forest of Poza Honda.
Poza Honda Ecuador
Comrades of the Friendship Tree of Life.
Do trees bleed? This one did.
How healthy is ‘Green Energy’ if it desecrates a vanishing ecosystem?
How healthy is all of that smoke?
Piece by piece, more fragmentation, like whittling away patches of skin.
My friend the balsa.
Poza Honda Ecuador
Internet search: “How many balsa trees are used to make one wind turbine?”
I did not expect to get instant answers.
A few minutes before that search began, an article mentioned Green Energy, which raised my hackles when I read, “…Earth’s electricity needs could be met 11 times over if we filled our oceans with wind turbines…”
“Fill our oceans with wind turbines?” At the cost of deforesting Ecuador and other areas of the Neotropics?
(Lisa’s eyes have never been so wide!)
Between Tosagua and Bahia de Caraquez/Ecuador
My search for data about wind turbine construction sailed me straight to recently published articles about this ‘green energy’ affecting Ecuador.
A new site to me – ‘Open Democracy’ – asked in a story published today, “What has the destruction of balsa trees in the Amazon rainforest got to do with the wind power industry in Europe?
Sadly, more than you think.“
That story is here: A green paradox: Deforesting the Amazon for wind energy in the Global North
I sometimes refer to an expanding group of concerned people as the ‘Davids’ who are building strength against the Goliaths of the planet.
Giovanni Ruiz doesn’t wait for an event, he picks up trash when he sees it.
Another recent story in Spanish from el Pais:
And one more story of interest from January 2021 breaks down the details. Wind-watch.org shares the story from the Economist. A worrying windfall – The wind-power boom set off a scramble for balsa wood in Ecuador
The open Democracy video, is well worth the time to learn more about the dilemma:
As the midnight hour approaches, I hold you all in my heart. Thank you for caring and for your empathy. The earth thanks you. The balsas thank you. The kinkajous thank you as well.
Lets all be quiet now so that the Kinkajous can dine in peace!
Goodnight, Kinkajou! Goodnight, World.
Zeebra Designs & Destinations 
I loved the little National Geographic video of the balsa flower and those it succours. But what a woeful tale is the rest of the story, Lisa. It doesn’t seem like we can get anything right on this earth of ours. It fills me with despair.
If more people were like you – with your kind and sensitive heart – the deforestation might not be so severe. Like my friend the Balsa, the kinkjous make precious poster ‘mascots’ for Nature. When I look at those sparkling eyes of the kinkajou in the header image, I have hope. How can we not?
The museum show continues to go well. Most days there is little time between visitors, and some volunteer tourism students have been a huge help. If you could see and hear the feedback, you too would have hope. There’s a quiet awakening happening, and it gives me hope.
I’m not sure how/what to feel about the green energy – there’s a fragile balance…
There is, and we nevver know the full consequences until it’s too late. Maybe we’re not meant to. My husband is very cynical about those in power, with their hands full of money, and I don’t blame him but I find it hard to live like that. Our youngsters have to be full of hope. It’s their world. And nature finds a way. Sending hugs, darlin!
Yes, hope. Esperanza.
🤗💕
We only knew balsa from building model aeroplanes when we were kids. We didn’t know that it’s used for wind turbines as well.
Thanks for all the info.
Keep well and happy
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Yes, until I moved to the Neotropics, that’s what I knew about balsa as well. It’s a beautiful ‘plant’ with huge leaves, is in the same family (Malva) as cotton and okra and Ceiba and even cacao/choclate! The ancients of South America’s Pacific coast made sea-worthy rafts of balsa and traded up and down the coast as far as Mexico. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_rafts
Oh Lisa, This hurts for you, and I feel it across the miles.
Yes, Hope; when we think of how the Mississippi Delta was once a vast swamp with huge cypress and pecans and oaks, etc… and only small remnants -it’s easy to understand why the Ivory Bill and other species were squeezed out of habitat. Perhaps because of that history is why it affects me here in Ecuador – watching a repeat, though now what is left is so fragile and important. It has been surprising that many people who tour the show often thank me for showing them their world that they’ve not stopped to notice.
There’s a good bit here I didn’t know. For some reason, I was reminded of those who blithely say, “Just buy an electric vehicle rather than one with a combustion engine.”
Of course. But the cost of those vehicles is astronomical (at least, from my perspective), not to mention the cost of personal charging stations, replacement batteries, and so on. Beyond that, the cost (financially and ecologically) of mining of the materials necessary for the batteries, and the production of the electricity to recharge them, isn’t negligible. More and more often, the rich are providing solutions which benefit the rich, and leave the working class in the dust: literally and metaphorically.
As for the wind turbines, I often see those blades being trucked up from the port in Galveston and ponder this: their average life span is around 20 or 25 years. Depending on their quality, it may be less. At the end of their usefulness, some materials can be recycled, but if fiberglass isn’t forever, it comes close. Landfills designed to provide a final resting place for those blades already are creating their own problems. Here’s some information about that.
You said much of what I was going to say, both about electric cars and wind turbines. And Lisa, you’re a wonderful advocate for balsa trees and so much else. The idea of covering the ocean or parts of the earth with turbines of balsa or unrecyclable materials makes me both furious and sick. I’ve passed trucks carrying one blade of a windmill and just that one is enormous and as shoreacres pointed out, not even recyclable. Everything has a cost. We just have to work to make the cost as little and as positive as possible.
janet
Hi Janet, and thanks for adding your observations as well. In contrast, all that I see on this end is the crude part, the beginning. I’m always surprised by how light the logs and wood can be. It might be somewhat helpful if only every other tree were felled, but they tend to go in and take all – or like some landowners are doing, cut an entire tract of all plant material in order to replant in balsa.. or corn.. or maracuya.. or dragonfruit. In time I think that there will be more diversity, but our time is running out – it’s time to dote on Mother Earth and help nurse her back into good health.
Hola Linda! Of course you’d see those monsters as they transition from sea to land and en route to their destinations. You probably observe many interesting transports!
Thank you for that link, and I often wonder what could be done with those sleek chunks of discarded turbines. In my imagination, I wonder how much each ‘chunk’ weighs, and I picture them stood upright and made into huge totems– or some type of artistic sculpture. I wonder if anyone has presented some of them to artists/sculptors….
How do we stop or at very least slow down the progression of Earthly destruction across the plant? You and National Geographic can not do it alone Lisa. Alternatives to energy use are being developed, just not very fast. Let’s face it, it is a massive undertaking! Thank you dear heart for showing us all just how badly we can effect a forest! hugs, Eddie
Dear and sensitive Eddie – You are a good example of one who tends to your special GPS point, and you give Mother Nature the respect she deserves. There are many who lack sensitivity, but there are many who care deeply. Yes, it’s a massive undertaking but I do have hope – and am witnessing many ‘quiet’ activists working in positive ways – not for the attention and spotlight, but behind the scenes and making a difference. The ones who are desecrating the landscape – I think that our leaders are the ones who can make that difference – yet the dollar often gets in the way of change.
You made your point indeed, Miss Z.
You make me smile, dear Don! How’s that mighty River doing? Wouldn’t it be interesting to float downstream via a balsa raft?!!! Move over Mark Twain, the preColombian indians navigated the Pacific coastline on balsa rafts!
Sounds like fun, Miss Z.
Thank you for another fabulous post, Lisa – I learn something new every time I stop by. I enjoy traveling to your side of the world. Sending hugs!
Thank you, from one tangent of the Americas to the other. I continue to keep an eye on what’s happening up there – the weather remains quite strange.
Keep the supply of art and poetry and literature and trivia coming our way – we need it to balance against the not-so-pretty slices of these times!
Hello Lisa: Yes, balsa is one of the components of the wind turbine blades. As we move from carbon-based fuels to renewables there will be some bumps in the road. And the present overharvesting of balsa timber may be one of those drawbacks. Almost 70% of Ecuador’s petroleum is shipped to … California. I fill my hybrid car’s tank in California with Ecuadorian petroleum pumped from the Amazon. I would prefer to be using wind energy and supporting the Ecuadorian economy by purchasing renewable and recyclable balsa. In this case I believe that the benefits may outweigh the side effects. No solution is perfect, and the best may come too late. Thanks, Stephen
Thank you Stephen! Such a great well-thought-out reply, and it’s being woven into a follow-up post right now… Thank you thank you!
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It’s heartbreaking, seeing all that chopped-up wood, but it’s complicated, isn’t it? Everyone really needs to think both locally and globally these days if we’re going to avoid more catastrophes. I was struck by the parallels between your balsa situation and the Douglas fir situation up here. I don’t think there’s any danger of losing Doug fir habitat overall and they are ubiquitous here and are very fast growers. But too many large trees are cut in British Columbia especially. It’s tricky – some logging is certainly sustainable but I doubt all the cuts that I see are sustainable. The logs are piled so, so high in the lumber yards around here. People depend on this business, but…what about the bigger picture??
Am I preaching to the choir, or what? 😉
I had no idea balsa wood was used in wind turbines! Can they be made without? And do we REALLY want to fill the ocean with turbines?
I have long been a strong proponent of wind and solar. But at the expense of a tree species and the destruction of a forest? I’ll stick with solar and hope ways can be found to produce turbines without balsa.